Print

Rear Admiral Franken assumed command of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HoA) in May 2011 at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, Africa.

Franken served as the vice director, Strategy, Plans, and Policy (J5) at U.S. Central Command since 2008. In that position, he was involved in regional security engagement, regional planning, and future force posture efforts in the U.S. Central Command region.

His formative operational assignments consisted of postings on guided missile destroyers. He was the first commanding officer of USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) and took the ship through work up training with the Royal Navy. His postings in USS King (DDG 41), USS Dahlgren (DDG 43), USS Barry (DDG 52), and Churchill garnered multiple Battle "E" decorations. As commodore, he commanded Destroyer Squadron 28 and Commander, Task Group 152.0 in the Eisenhower Strike Group from 2005 to 2007.

Ashore, Franken served in four operational staff positions ranging from a readiness squadron to a four-star fleet command. He also served in the Office of Secretary of the Navy, in four other navy staff positions, and in the Joint Staff as US Pacific Command division chief and deputy JOD chief in the Joint Operations Directorate (J3). He presented the worldwide orders book to Secretary Rumsfeld from 2003 to 2005, and was the first military officer to serve as a military legislative fellow for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. He authored past Navy posture statements in the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel, congressional testimonies in Navy’s Deep Blue, and Navy’s 2003 forcible entry study. He served as an executive assistant or chief of staff four times.

Franken was raised in rural Iowa. He is the 1981 distinguished NROTC graduate from the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska, and obtained a master of science from the College of Physics at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a graduate of the Brookings Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Seminar XXI.

PRIVACY AND SECURITY NOTICE PRIVACY POLICY FOIA Requests EXTERNAL LINKS POLICY